Is GovtMotors hosing the taxpayer?

H

Horn6721

Hook'em
from WSJ
US Hurries to sell GM Stock
The U.S. government plans to sell a significant share of its remaining stake in General Motors Co. this summer despite the disappointing performance of the auto maker's stock, people familiar with the matter said.

A sale within the next several months would almost certainly mean U.S. taxpayers will take a loss on their $50 billion rescue of the Detroit auto maker in 2009.

To break even, the U.S. Treasury would need to sell its remaining stake—about 500 million shares—at $53 apiece. GM closed off 27 cents a share at $29.97 in 4 p.m. trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange, hitting a new low since its $33-a-share November initial public offering.

."Planning for the sale of our remaining GM stock is still at an early stage, and the IPO lock-up does not expire until late May," a Treasury spokesperson said. "At that point, we will consider all of our options, based on our twin goals of protecting taxpayers' interests and exiting as soon as practicable."
The Link

It doesn't make it clear how serious Obama is about selling soon. but this , from article
"Government officials are willing to take the loss because the Obama administration would like to sever its last ties to the auto maker, the people familiar with the matter said. A summer sale makes it more likely Treasury could sell all of its stake in GM by year's end, avoiding a potentially controversial sale in the 2012 presidential election year."

isn't very comforting.

Is there any downside to waiting?
 
the government better sell while they can. the current price was helped by GE's purchase of 50,000 Chevy Volts. of course, they got a sweet tax right off for that deal.
 
general
did we taxpayers give Gov't the 7,000 tax credit for each 50,000 we sold the gov't? That seems silly.Wasn't there some other shuffle of funds that the GM/Admin proudly proclaimed they paid some loan back?

What I can't figure out is why it is a good idea for us( taxpayers ) to sell right now and lose billions.
 
bronco
you make sense from Obama's viewpoint I guess but I am pretty sure most taxpayers will see the billions lost.
I hope this is just speculation.

One thought?
smile.gif

can we taxpayers take the loss as a write off when we do 2011 taxes?

one other thought. I know they have recalled the Cruze and now there might be a problem with the Volt battery catching fire while recharging
could this be why Obama would sell?
 
And the chances of anyone actually questioning the POTUS directly on this are about as good as the national debt getting reduced in the next 30 months.
 
You guys are only talking about the money they were loaned. How come nobody talks about the $42Billion in debt that was just forgiven?

Yea, we want our money back but what about all those little guys that are dependent on GM and got screwed out of $42B? We should have let it fail, it wouldn't have done anything worse then what happened. It would have busted up the union and that would have had longer lasting positive effects for this country than anything else.
 
I think you're missing the point. It's good that the government sell the shares, whenever and at whatever prices. Gripe about the government intervening to take ownership in the first place, but don't gripe about it getting out. We don't want Uncle Sam to view the private sector as a profit center to offset other exenses.

It's pretty clear that, no matter what was said, the last 2 years were pretty much about seeing unionized workers (who contributed so much to Obama's campaign, allowing him to outspend McCain 3:1) through this recession with a minimum of pain. Look at the so-called "stimulus" bills- they were pretty much set up to transfer payments to states to keep teachers free of layoff worries. I almost regret my criticism of keynesian approaches- it's clear in retrospect that they weren't really tried. The "stimulus", the takeover of GM and Chrysler, "Cash For Clunkers"- hundreds of billions spent to take care of the unionized workers, leaving us deeper in debt.

Let the government sell this stock and let's move on from this whole sordid episode.
 
Golf
"I hear a rumor that the Chinese were going to buy a large stake in GM, but for now it is just a rumor. "

Now that is interesting. The article I posted was from the Wall Street Journal.

Do you have a link for your rumor?
 
I hate being right all the time.

Looks like the taxpayers are going to take a hit. If gov sells now, it will be an approximate 11 billion loss for taxpayers. The news has hit the street and everyone is fleeing the stock. word is the administration is willing to take the hit and get out now.
The Link
 
doesnt matter who's fault it is. combo of unions and poor management. government should have allowed company to go into bankruptcy and restructure. 11 billion. that is 1/3 of the budget cut. think of all the children and old people that could have been saved from the republicans?
 
general
whoever in the obama admin leaked this needs to be indentified and at the least fired. How can anyone think that this information coming out even from "people familiar with the matter and " unnamed Treasury Spokesperson" wouldn't cause the stock to fall
which hurts not only the taxpayers but any other idiot who owned GM.
I notice no one from the Obama admin has come out and denied it. The stock will likely keep falling.



93
I see as usual you posted an intelligent relevant point that adds so much to the topic.
 
This administration has no understanding of how information like this affects the stock market. They have an understanding of how it affects polls, and that's their primary concern.
 
The u. s. goverment is a non-profit organization. The actions of the government saved a butt load of jobs and an American icon. Forced those idiots at GM to actually make decent cars too. Who gives a crap if we break even.
 
The wisdom of Obama taking over GM can be weighed against Ford not being taken over.

Jobs?? Ha No it was about Unions just like Obama's man at NLBR is going after Boeing for Unions. If Obama cared about jobs he wouldn't let this action go forward.

How does the quality of GM cars compare to other auto makers?
 
Ok. Let's allow a few hundred thousand jobs go away.

What side are you on? Jesus.

We're the United States of America.

Oh yeah. We're gonna make a profit.

How close do you want to hold true to Pure Capitalism. It's a myth. It's troubling otherwise. Government is an essential cog in business profits like everywhere else in the world.
 
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